What can't you get in India now?

[Vikram]

This thread is mainly directed at eGulletteers in India, or who come here frequently! If you such, you'll certainly now how there was a time, and not a very distant time either, when being a foodfreak was a difficult thing. In those NOT nostalgically remembered days before liberalisation, getting many ingredients for non-Indian cooking was very difficult.

So friends and relatives coming from abroad would be presented with loooooong lists of items to be purchased, and when they came we would circle round their suitcases like vultures hoping to see what they had got us. In the unlikely event that we went abroad in those foreign exchange control days the torture was worse, as we stood in the middle of a supermarket (or as a last twist, in the duty free homeward bound) and stood lost because we wanted it all and had next to nothing to buy it with.

Or back at home there were the dubious pleasures of the local smuggled goods shops like Hira Panna in Bombay or Burma Bazaar in Madras where you might find the odd food item nestling below the stacks of Walkmans and bottles of fake scent. If you knew any diplomats that was another route and God knows did we put up with many self important minor embassy types to get them. And failing everything there was always the fun of trying to substitute, like a recipe for coq au vin that blithely suggested that soy sauce could be substituted for red wine...

I remember trays of Western herbs tenderly nurtured from seeds smuggled through customs (they mostly died), or suitcases perfumed with rapidly deteriorating Brie and Camembert (some of those old suitcases still vaguely smell of them), or bottles of entirely dubious wine procured, via Mr.Friendly Neighbourhood Bootlegger from a down at heels Soviet Bloc consulate (so you can imagine what sort of wine I'm talking about). And what is horrible is that we cherished them, cherished them all, for the fugitive links to foreign tastes.

And then came Dr.Manmohan Singh, finance minister of blessed memory (lets forget what he's been doing recently), who, to use a phrase endlessly recycled by my bizjournalist brethren, "threw upon the gates to the winds of liberalisation". Under him and his successors the Export-Import policy was modified and now you can get a lot of the stuff that was never available before. My kiranawalla sells Italian pasta and the vegetable seller has fresh rosemary thanks to enlightened agriculturists like Trikaya (whose gourmet greens are partly subsidised by their production of iceberg letture for McDonald's in India, doesn't globalisation work in wonderful ways).

Initially it was only dried foods, but now you're even getting perishable stuff, like cheeses. These days you are even getting imported kitchenware, which was one of the last things I still had to keep imploring aunts to bring. Even Le Creuset is now selling here (thank god, since I would never have dared to ask anyone to bring a single pan that would have taken up all their luggage allowance weight). So what is there left to ask people to bring? Or what should one stock up on when you are abroad?

Obviously particular brands, labels, makes might top this list, and I'll be interested to hear which. But I'm looking more for types of food in general that are still hard to get here.

Vikram

[Suvir Saran]

Vikram, I was crying as I went back into memory lane reading this post.

Beautiful, so true and so charming...

What do you miss most? What would be the top 5 things you would want most to be available in India of today?

[Episure]

One of the first things on your list should be a nonstick pan with raised line indentations. Essential for pan grilling, you should have seen my friends faces when they say grill marks on their meats. One use and it's paisa vasool.

I have a square one 14" with a little lip on one side for pouring out the juices.

Another hunter-gatherer doodad is a grill cage with a long handle. Think of a thickish wire frame pizza box, essential for using on camping/fishing trips. Hinges open like a sandwich toaster. Just put the meat/fish/potatoes inside and cook over a fire.

These two are killer applications.

I have often been chided by Mr. Customs man for bringing in, as per my true declaration - adrak, mirchi, limbu and bhaji from Thailand. I can imagine him finishing his duty, going home and suffering from insomnia. By the way I learnt Thai cuisine by working free at hawker stalls. Absolutely my favorite cuisine, unfortunately many ingredients grown in India will never have the taste of Thai soil. Terroir strikes again!

I once bought a bottle of lovely Mandarin orange liquor from Burma bazaar for Rs. 150 because nobody knew what it was.

[BBhasin]

Vikram,

Have stores like Kitchen Bazar, Sur La Table etc. dealing in cooking, utensils, tools, books, and other food paraphanilia, all under one roof, made it there??

[Vikram]

a nonstick pan with raised line indentations. Essential for pan grilling, you should have seen my friends faces when they say grill marks on their meats. One use and it's paisa vasool.

No, doesn't count, Le Creuset is selling beautiful ones at Vama. At Rs5,000 each they may not exactly be paisa vasool, but you do get them here. The second item sounds so bizarre that it probably counts, but being an adamant urbanist I certainly don't envisage needing one.

I agree with you on Thai ingredients, Ananda Solomon war mourning to me how the Kaffir lime trees he's tried growing here just never taste the same.

Have stores like Kitchen Bazar, Sur La Table etc. dealing in cooking, utensils, tools, books, and other food paraphanilia, all under one roof, made it there??

There are stores selling kitchen systems like Poggenpohl, but no kitchen equipment stores yet. Large department stores like Lifestyle and Westside do have a good range of equipment, but not specialist stuff though. For example, when it comes to baking stuff, the one place in Bombay remains Arife, that old stall in Crawford market where everyone from Catholic aunties from Bandra to catering college students have come for ages to buy their baking tins and icing bags.

What would be the top 5 things you would want most to be available in India of today?

Its hard to think of off-hand, though I'm sure there'll be hundreds of things that come to mind when I really start cooking. Cachaca is always top of the list. Real parmesan, not that sawdust crap in plastic tins. I picked up a mysterious fondness for biltong in South Africa, but its admittedly not a major necessity. Good quality cooking chocolate would have been a major item, but someone has started getting quite decent chocolate under the brand name Morde. Oh yes, vanilla beans, I'm sure there's a source, but never found it. I seem to be having trouble locating a kitchen thermometer, but this is temporary, I'm sure. Will think of more,

Vikram

[Episure]

No, doesn't count, Le Creuset is selling beautiful ones at Vama. At Rs5,000 each they may not exactly be paisa vasool, but you do get them here.

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Oh yes, vanilla beans, I'm sure there's a source, but never found it. I seem to be having trouble locating a kitchen thermometer, but this is temporary, I'm sure. Will think of more,

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This must be a recent arrival, Rs. 5000 is way too much, but then Le crueset is a brand name. I got mine from Dubai for Rs. 1200 but that was 6 years ago.

Vanilla beans are also on my list and I 've not been able to locate them here.

For the thermometer go to Princess street where the Scientific/Lab suppliers are. Whilst you are there you might want to pick up a Mortar+ Pestle too. I use them to make masalas, pesto, thai paste and as an ashtray.

Francois Maison's salmon is pink norwegian, half sides at Rs. 675 kg. He says it's imported, Price is too high but I'll go have a look anyway in the name of research.

[Episure]

Oh yeah I've just asked friends who are invited to the Moroccan Film Festival to bring me some Ras al Hanout. Preferably from the Host's (King) kitchen.

[anil]

Oh yeah I've just asked friends who are invited to the Moroccan Film Festival to bring me some Ras al Hanout. Preferably from the Host's (King) kitchen.

In that part of the world (i.e Northern Africa, Mediterrean,Bosphorous) Istanbul is the place to get spices - My favourite is Arifgolu Spice Co. in the Egyptian bazzar a.k.a Spice Bazzar. They were planning on opening a cart/stall in Ataturk International Airport because of the number of folks returning back wih their spice mixtures What is in Ras al Hanout that you cannot get in Mumbai ? Any special ingredient ? My understanding of it was that it is like garam masala; the proportions of the mixture of ingredients were the key. But then I'm not really a cook, I could be wrong.

[Episure]

Ras al Hanout is like a Garam Masala and then some. I've just finished my stock but the first time I used it I knew I had come across something alien to Indian Cuisine. According to one of Paula Wolfert's (she participates elsewhere on this site) books, Ras al Hanout can comprise of 5 to 100 ingredients, some of which have powers that are questionable.

I have managed to make an ersatz version but it's not quite there and I am not bothering too much until I get diverse samples. We Sindhis take these tasks seriously.

[Wolfert]

Hello

Ras el hanout has so many formulas---you could even say every moroccan cook has her own!. But once you get a good formula, the next step is to be sure all the spices are of good quality. I have been using a mix from seasonedpioneers.com. based in Liverpool, England. They have really good spice mixtures including a lot of unusual Tunisian, Caribbean and Eastern mixes. You can find them on the internet. See what you think. I'd actually be very interested to know what you think.

Edited October 3, 2003 by Wolfert (log)

[Episure]

It's not everyday that I get to interact with the author of some books that form part of my Culinary Library. Across the seas this reader from Bombay says hello to you.

Paula, I just discovered that I am out of RAH and that rekindled my interest in Moroccan cuisine, which is not very different from Indian. I shall be making Goat Tagine again after a period of two years as soon as I get my RAH. If any one wants details of my preparations, please Email/PM me.

Checked out seasonedpioneers, they do seem to carry a comprehensive range. Might be useful for some of you guys out there.

Are you working on any new books, Paula?

Paula Wolfert can be found Here

[Monica Bhide]

Paula is a Q&A guest with us.... today and tomorrow.. do post your questions to her

[rajsuman]

And what unusual things do you bring back from India? I've brought varak, copper vessels, the traditional butter-churner (mathani, even though I don't use it - mainly for decoration purposes), dried rose petals, bamboo shoots in brine, raw mangoes in brine....

Still on my list/wish list: Hyderabad ka potli masala, brass vessels, the black claypot my grandma used to make her famous fish curry in, surahi (a bit far-fetched I know)

[Rushina]

These are a few of my favourtie things

1. Vanilla Beans (I got my last batch from Sri Lanka, begged some family friends to bring me some. I guess the fact that i was lying in a hospi bed just having given birth to a 9.5 pounder had something to do with the fact that they brought me back 5)

2. Lemon Oil - this is oil produced when lemons are pressed with olives. Mom found some for me on her last trip to Italy at 150$ a bottle. It is over now, but found some at Premsons for RS 150. Am down to my last one now. Sniff Sniff. (By the by, some interesting things to be found at Premsons Galleria sometimes.)

3. The Iranian Black Nimbus (awfull to look at but very flavourful) and the dried cranberries (really pretty red that is retained on cooking, really dresses up a dish.)

4. Straw mushrooms - have had them the one time. Someone who loves me very much (would have to) actually tried to bring me some however they were dead and gone to mushroom heavae by then.

5. Fresh Porcini Mushrooms - what can I say... Actually much of what I had on that trip to Italy I wish i could import. (If I was not happily married I'd Includ a certain barman at the Charming English Pub in Aosta in the list)

6. The coffe from Coffee Connectrions at Knysna in Sought Africa. This place is amazing, the have possible the largest variety of Coffee beans and flavoured coffees I have ever seen, also the best Cheese Cake.

Some things I would really like to try

1. The truffle - is it really as amazing as it sounds?

2. Ras El Hanout

3. A Sacher torte

4. A twinkie if it exists, read abouit it in archie comics...

5. Garfields Lasagna (hehe)

Some things I wish I could eat again

1. Mayo food - the boarding school I was at. The food was awesome - I can vouch for it I craved it while I was pregnant...

2. The Steamed fish in a Soya Sauce that I had at a Chinese restaurant in Auckland, New Zealand. I do not know what it was called or what the restaurant was called, I just know it was near the Air new Zealand office. If anyopne could help me with the recipe....

3. Pollenta the freshly baked Brioche at the Holiday Inn at Aosta.

Should this post be elsewhere on the site?

Rushina

[Vikram]

1. Vanilla Beans (I got my last batch from Sri Lanka, begged some family friends to bring me some. I guess the fact that i was lying in a hospi bed just having given birth to a 9.5 pounder had something to do with the fact that they brought me back 5)

This lack of vanilla beans is really weird and annoying because now they are being grown in India. There are all these articles about how farmers in Kerala are finding them a useful cash crop because they can grow the orchids that produce the beans on existing coffee or rubber trees or something like that. My sister tells me she's seen them being sold on the roadside in Wynaad, dirt cheap since no one there knows what to do with them locally. Presumably they think this interest is general, since I cannot find them at all in Bombay - where is all the vanilla vanishing to?

4. A twinkie if it exists, read abouit it in archie comics...

Archie comics are the little acknowledged but probably pretty major influence on the view that most of us who grew up in India have of the US and its food. I think many of us would first have heard of these stranger things called burgers, chocolate malteds and ice cream sodas in their pages. And as you point out there were the Hostess Twinkies which came in the ads that went along with the comics. Oh, and the spreads for some strange event called Thanksgiving.

What I'd like to know is whether Archie comics played the same role anywhere else in the world outside the US. And did kids read them too - and do they still? And any other food items first encountered in the pages of Archie?

Vikram

[bague25]

Remember the Ice cream sodas ... and my brothers called me Jughead because of my appetite!

[Rushina]

I find Ice Cream sodas overrated personally. Though I do have a weakness for two things that were a legacy of the Ice Cream soda trend. The clear but flavoured Ice Cream soda that Dukes used to sell and the Raspberry drink as well. The first I have not had in years the second used to be found at the ideal corner in Fort but no more.

Any ideas Vikram.

As for the Vanilla beans, I heard about them being available in the south too but have not found them yet. Have asked several people to find them, also the essential oil of Vanilla for scenting my candles with. So far no go. If you would like to be kept posted let me know.

Rushina

[Monica Bhide]

I had done a piece a while ago which you might enjoy Rushina - East Views West on an Indian food writers view of the west thru television!

[Vikram]

As far as I know the Raspberry drink still exists, produced in small quantities by the Dukes factory (now owned by Pepsi) almost entirely for the Parsi wedding market. If you've been to one of them you'll know that the eating is the main event (bride, what bride, we came here for the sass-ni-machi), for which you have to queue up for 'sittings' - to at least, or the family isn't popular.

And when you sit down at the long tables, covered by long rolls of cheap paper to save on tablecloth washing costs, before the food arrives you'll get a guy who offers you any of four drinks, all made by Dukes and help by their necks in one hand - Raspberry, Mangola, Ice Cream Soda and something else I forget, maybe a ginger drink.

The Raspberry is, as you'll remember, violently red coloured and violently flavoured, but somehow its chemical sweet taste goes very well with the jardaloo sali boti or fada ni ghosht - maybe the chemicals cut through the richness and the sweetness matches the sweetness in the recipe from all the dried fruits.

Ideal Corner has gone to the dogs completely, they might as well just put it out of its misery and put in the ATM or Barista that, no doubt, the owners are dying to do. Meanwhile you'll get Raspberry, along with good Parsi wedding food at Jimmy Boy's in Fort. The owners are wedding caterers so it'll be good. Only one word of warning - the set menu whcih replicates a wedding feast is very good value, but so much so that you better split one, I don't know anyone who can finish a single one by themself.

Vikram

[easyguru]

Besides the food and drinks in Parsi weddings, what I remember most from handful I atended was a freaky group which perform songs. They were just out of the world.

[Rushina]

Thank you Monica, i did enjoy that article.

Rushina

[Swati]

I have bought some vanilla beans at Munnar in Kerala.

[Monica Bhide]

Swati - Welcome to the India forum -- looking forward to more posts from you!

[Swati]

Thanks a lot, Monica. Sorry, did not introduce myself.

I am Swati, a Mumbaiite. Love to cook and love to watch food being cooked. In fact, 'a sample of north indian breads' by monica was my introduction to egullet.

Have learnt a lot from all of you.

A very lovely e-community, except that I think I keep on adding calories by reading the food description posted here.